screenwriter
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of screenwriter
Explanation
Someone who writes movie scripts or screenplays is called a screenwriter. A novelist whose book is being made into a film might be hired to be the screenwriter. Every movie has a script, with lines for the actors to speak and directions for certain camera shots and scene changes. The person who writes the screenplay is the screenwriter. Some big-budget Hollywood films might have several screenwriters who collaborate. The word's been used since the 1920s, from the sense of screen that means "cinema world," or "surface on which a movie is projected."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Authorities have identified the hiker who suffered a fatal medical emergency in Runyon Canyon as 78-year-old screenwriter William Hasley.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026
Satrapi's husband, a Swedish producer, actor and screenwriter, died last year and she recently published a series of heartfelt Instagram posts saying: "For I Lost the love of my life".
From BBC • Jun. 4, 2026
Her husband, a Swedish producer, actor and screenwriter, had been a long-time collaborator.
From Barron's • Jun. 4, 2026
Michael Esser, a Los Angeles screenwriter, wrote in with a parallel story from before the AI era—one illustrating the historical asymmetries that AI is now scaling up.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 26, 2026
As a known member of the Communist Party, Froelick had trouble finding work as a screenwriter after 1950.
From "Spooked!" by Gail Jarrow
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
